Terra and Jarel's Wonderful Mishaps and Adventures
by Bearded Zeus
Summary: Essentially, this is a story about a sweet girl named Terra and a somewhat mysterious boy named Jarel and their adventures as pokemon trainers in the Region of Kanto. Super Special Awesome!
1. Chapter 1

Terra had always been the nice girl. She was the kind of girl who would stoop down to help a classmate who had dropped their crayons or helping the teachers after school. So she was remarkably surprised when she realized that not everyone followed her same rules.

A man in a black uniform had challenged her to a battle. One-on-one and he was supposed to be a relatively new trainer. That was a lie, and he took her psyduck after the battle.

She ran as fast as she could to try to stop him, but it was no use. She wasn't the kind of person who tried to stay fit, and running was her least favorite activity. But today she was lucky and unlucky. Terra was a good thirty feet behind him when she noticed that they weren't too far from Cerulean City. If she could keep up until they got there, then she could get some help.

But then Jarel appeared, or rather his arm appeared. He managed to knock the man in black off balance, and the man had to stop to keep from falling over. Jarel was a strong young man, no more than one year older than Terra, but he looked like he could match this thief in a ring. What she noticed the most was his hat. A black fedora that made him look like a mobster.

Two pokeballs flew as the two trainers jumped back from each other. A Charmeleon and a beedrill appeared out of the smoke that emitted from the pokeballs. The man's face turned to shock as he realized his poor choice, but had no time to recall it.

"Twineedle!" called the man.

"Get back!" Called the boy known as Jarel. As the pokemon jumped back from the poison spears of the beedrill. "Use ember!" and then Charmeleon exploded out a flame that landed directly on the beedrill.

"Poison Sting!" called the man in black. Stingers erupted out of the beedrill.

"Use Metal Claw! Quick!" Jarel said as the Charmeleon instinctively blocked the poison attack with a steel attack, completely cancelling it out. "End it with flamethrower!" Called the boy in the hat. And Chameleon complied with a stream of fire which, in turn, fainted the Beedrill.

The man in the black uniform started to reach for his next ball, but Jarel had no intention of letting another round get started. Jarel threw his fist into the man's stomach.

Jarel looked coldly into the man's eyes and said, "Give it back to her. Now!" In which case the man complied. Terra had completely forgotten what she was doing there. She had gooten lost in this boy's battle skills and physical ability. He turned to her with a pokeball in his hand and put it in hers. She felt herself blush slightly.

"My name's Jarel Yasutora. And this guy is a member of Team Rocket."

After a few micro-moments of being slightly stunned, she responded, "My name's Terra Avalon. Thank you so much for saving my Psyduck."

After a moment or two of mutual awkwardness, Jarel dragged the Rocket to Cerulean and dropped him off at the Police station. The two trainers sat down on a bench outside of the police station. Jarel began to explain his story. He had been born on the outskirts of Viridian City and had received his Charmander from Professor Oak. Shortly afterward, he had set off to conquer The Pokemon League and try to rid the world of Team Rocket. He had only two Pokemon, a Charmeleon and an Abra, which he had only caught a few hours ago.

Terra had been staring at him rather admiringly while he explained which made him very uncomfortable. Terra looked down at her clothes when she noticed this. She wore a blue cotton sundress with sandals. On her wrists, she had a number of decorative bracelets, and her hair was held in place with matching berets. At this point she realized what terrible travelling clothes she had picked out. She looked at his clothes and saw more sensibility. He wore hiking boots and jeans with a t-shirt and carried a satchel which no doubt housed many more sensible items and tools.

Jarel turned to her and said, "It seems as though we part here."

"Why?"

"Because this is how I travel, just me and my friends."

"I want to be your friend."

"Whatever" Jarel said as he started to walk towards the gym. Terra hopped up and started to skip after him.

Jarel walked into the Gym with an incredible amount of confidence. Another trainer stepped up to him with a challenge. Abra was sent out, but it sat around and just teleported out of the way when an attack came too close. Occasionally it teleported ten feet above the opponent and landed on it, other than that, it was for the most part won by Charmeleon. It seemed that Charmeleon had no fear of the water attacks that came at it. Pokemon and trainer were incredibly in synch.

After the second trainer, Abra evolved and there were no more challengers. It came down to a tired Charmeleon and a freshly evolved Kadabra versus Misty's well trained Corsola and high-powered Starmie.

Looking at the circumstances, Terra thought that Jarel would definitely leave and heal his pokemon, but Jarel kept walking towards the red-headed gym leader. Terra was afraid that Jarel would lose, but that was only because Jarel had no fear of loss for himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Jarel twisted his neck to the point that it popped and then his body relaxed. Terra knew that he was incredibly tense in actuality. She could see the reality in his muscles, but it was only because she was so close that she could see this.

The Gym Leader couldn't tell, and Terra was assuming that it was part of Jarel's plan. Acting really laid back would set off the Gym Leader while Jarel could execute a hidden plan. Yes, that was his idea. Jarel and The gym leader released the pokemon for the first round. A somewhat tired Charmeleon versus a Corsola.

A flag was dropped and the Charmeleon exploded into movement. It jumped from platform to platform coming dangerously close to the Corsola. "Spike Cannon!" called the Gym Leader. A moment or two later and the Charmeleon would have had it, but the Spikes flew quickly and impacted on the Charmeleon, which began to stumble back onto the platform. "Dang! I was hoping to push it into the water." Said the Gym Leader.

"Don't let that stop you, go offensive. Flamethrower!" and a burst of flames headed for the Corsola.

"Mirror Coat." Called the gym leader, and the pokemon obeyed, minimizing the damage and sending it back to its origin. Charmeleon was hit again, but being a fire type, the attack did little damage.

Terra looked away from the battle for a moment saw that Jarel looked like he was sweating it.

"Use Smokescreen!" Charmeleon fired a small puff at Corsola, which exploded lightly into a large cloud of obscurity. "Hit it with Firespin!" A this point, Terra noticed the smile on his face, he was acting again. Or was he? She couldn't tell, but she knew that fire attacks weren't great to smile about when facing a wter Pokemon trainer.

The Corsola was launched into the air.

Nobody knew what was going on, except apparently Jarel. The Corsola, obviously confounded over its new whereabouts.

To Terra, time stopped. Jarel had planned this. Terra was amazed at Jarel's inventiveness. He used the Fire Spin had increased the heat around Corsola to the point that the air and everything in it was shot up due to the low pressure of hot air compared to the air that was cooled by the water.

"Finish this with Metal Claw!" Jarel said when time continued in its normal fashion. The Charmeleon propelled itself into the air with a blast of fire and now was charging energy into its claw. The attack hit its mark with incredible accuracy. When the pokemon landed, it was clear that Jarel had won the first round.

The Gym Leader's face was a mix of shock and impress. Her next pokemon took the arena now. Starmie, a powerful, yet beautiful pokemon not terribly unlike its trainer.

Jarel now recalled the Charmeleon. It was clear that he was saving it in case of a small disaster with Kadabra.

The Kadabra was summoned and it looked directly at Jarel. The Psychic line was established, not that Terra could tell. Now there was no necessity for any attacks to be called out.

The flag dropped again. Starmie launched itself into the water and began speeding at the platform Kadabra was standing on.

"Water gun!" called Starmie's trainer. And it was a savage attack, but useless at the same time, for Kadabra teleported before the Starmie had exited the water. After launching the attack, the starmie didn't move. Terra then saw that it was due to Kadabra.

Kadabra flung the enemy at a wall, but Starmie broke free and was back on the offensive with a rapid spin that made contact, but did little damage. Kadabra hit ti with a psybeam, and was struck with a swift.

Kadabra teleported behind it and hit it with Confusion. Starmie whirled around and used surf, which created a giant wave out of the battle arena. Kadabra countered with a Psywave on the water, to create a larger more powerful wave that Kadabra rode toward Starmie. Just before colliding, Starmie used an Ice Beam on Kadabra's wave, freezing it in place, and causing Kadabra to fly forward uncontrollably. Starmie's wave crashed and both pokemon rammed into each other.

At the next moment, Starmie and Kadabra were deadlocked. Kadabra using Psybeam, and Starmie using Ice Beam. The intensity increased. Energy bombarded and was thrown into random directions. Terra ducked to keep from getting hit by an Ice Beam. Finally, the attacks ended in an explosion.

Both Pokemon were tired, but were glowing. Terra recognized this technique from a TV special on Psychic types: Recover. It was a race to heal and attack first. Kadabra was first, to Jarel's rather obvious relief.

It threw its most powerful Psychic attack at Starmie, which was still in mid-recover and therefore motionless. Using straight pressure, Kadabra held Starmie against the wall. The focus was strong, for even when Starmie tried to move, it was no use. Kadabra now launched it into the ice wall formed by the wave.

The damage was done, Jarel had won. A flag made this known to the spectators, which had been increasingly growing since the beginning. The gym leader had no hard feelings when she handed him the badge. It had been her best battle in a while.

Terra walked to his side as he turned to leave the gym. "That was incredible! I've never seen a battle like that! Did you plan that, or was it instinct?"

Jarel looked at her closely before answering. She now saw what a thoughtful person he was. "I'd like to say that it was all planned, but Kadabra did a lot of the work in round two. That thing with Charmeleon was my plan, but Kadabra deserves half the credit for his strategy."

"You're sure modest." Terra said, rather flirtingly.

"That's how I was raised."

"So, where to now?"

And there was another pause from Jarel. "I guess we go to the Pokemon Center and heal these guys. We could stay the night and work on your strategy for tomorrow's battle."

"Oh. Right! I almost forgot. Yeah." The two trainers headed into the Center and Jarel left Charmeleon and Kadabra with the lady in pink. Terra headed to the room registration. Jarel sat down and began to fiddle with his pokedex.

"I was wondering if we could get two rooms next to each other for the night." Terra said when it was her turn in line.

"I'm sorry, miss, but we have only one room left." The clerk told her. Terra was a little shocked to hear this, and she didn't know what to do. She fidgeted and thought about how weird it could be to spend the night in the same room as a boy. "Excuse me, but if you want this room, it has to be now. There are other trainer's here who would like to stay."

"Umm… yes, that's fine. We'll take the room." Terra managed to stutter out. She worried about how this would bother Jarel. Then she realized that she had only met him a few hours ago. She took the keys from the man and headed back to where Jarel was sitting.

"Okay, so they only had one room left, so we have to share. I hope that won't bother you too much." Terra said quickly as she turned to walk away, leaving Jarel with an outstretched, protesting hand a shocked expression.


	3. Chapter 3

Right, well I hate adding notes to a story. They take away from the fact that it's supposed to be one that's just broken up into chapters. It gets on my nerves that people feel the need to explain themselves outside the context of the story, so I don't plan on having to do this again.

Essentially, the OC application is for one purpose. I need a third character for the story. It's too easy to write a story about two people who eventually fall in love when they're the only two characters in the story. Here's my dilemma: if I was to write a story with just Terra and Jarel, then they would end up together way too fast, so I need a third character to offset the whole idea that this is to an extent, an intriguing love story after being a journey story. BUT, I'm much too lazy to write out another character with their own motives and style that could easily slow down the development of Jarel and Terra's feelings for each other. I'm giving away a lot of things to begin with, but I hope someone will fill in this blank for me. Give a name, age, a gender (if not outwardly obvious), appearance, basic strategy for battles, personality, and a certain amount of background for reference, pokemon and how and when they were obtained. It's not a bad idea to add what pokemon you would like them to have and when they might get them in the journey. Remember that this story is set in the Kanto region, and therefore the trainers submitted should not have too many pokemon from other regions. Only _one_ OC can make it into the story as a main character.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Jarel eventually caught up to the girl he knew as Terra when he followed to the room they would be sharing. She was standing outside the room with the key in her hand.

"Everything ok?" Jarel asked. "Well, besides that whole sharing a room thing."

"Yeah." Terra said after a moment. She opened a door, and both looked in. a 10x11 room, with a set of beds lying on opposite walls from each other. Other than the bed, there was a desk and a foot locker and that was it. A rather small room for two practical strangers to stay in together.

Jarel surveyed the room and then threw his backpack onto the bed farther from the door and removed his hat for the first time since they had met. His hair was a dark brown, but in the sunlight, Terra noticed a few hairs with a blue tint. Jarel scratched the fuzz on his face. "I'm gonna go freshen up." Terra said as she entered the small water closet and turned on the light.

She now looked at herself, trying to figure out if she felt anything for this boy. She stared harder to scrutinize her appearance. Her hair was brown also, but a much lighter brown and she had very clear blue eyes. She had promised herself not to wear makeup while she was on this journey, but she felt that she needed it now. Unknown to her, Jarel did like the way she looked. After fixing her slightly disheveled appearance, she left the bathroom.

Jarel was drawing a chart of the kind he Terra had never seen. He then propped the tablet up on the desktop. He looked at her with a different face than she had seen before. What was the look in his eye? It seemed remarkably serious, but not angry. His eyes seemed unfocussed, like he wasn't much looking at her as a person, but as something to be studied. A specimen was what she thought for a while. But then his disposition changed again. He was back to the somewhat mysterious and therefore intriguing boy who had rescued her psyduck and earned a badge within an hour of each task.

"Right. So what pokemon do you have?" Jarel asked, as if those last few moments hadn't actually occurred in reality.

"I've got Psyduck and a tyrogue" terra answered.

"How'd you get that?"

"My father…" Terra began, but then thought maybe it wasn't the greatest idea to spill her family life to Jarel at this time. "He's a fighting pokemon trainer, and his pokemon had an egg. He gave it to me because he thinks Psyduck isn't worth having."

"He sounds closed-minded, but I guess that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's not good to be open-minded to the point that your brains ooze out of your opened mind." Jarel said with a smile, which allowed Terra to make the realization that it was meant to be a joke.

"He's a bit extreme sometimes."

"Yeah, get that that too. My mother wouldn't let me leave home for this long 'til I was fifteen."

"So that makes you a year older than me." Terra said.

"…Yeah. So now for your strategy…" Jarel's eyes opened wider as he started talking about the gym leader's pokemon in comparison with hers. He made it very obvious how much he thought about things before making a decision during this time. The two talked until midnight about the next day's strategy before going to sleep. A sleep that left Terra still a little uncomfortable about sharing the room, but not so uncomfortable as to ask Jarel to leave the room.

***

The next day, Jarel and Terra got ready in silence. Jarel set up a crude excuse for a curtain so that Terra could ensure her privacy, but after talking to this boy for hours the night before, she felt like she could trust him with her secrets. But now that she thought about it, he had spoken a great deal last night about himself, but didn't actually say anything about who he was. This made her really uneasy.

She felt close to him, but still knew so little about him. If he could do this in one night, what did that say about the long term? If he really wanted to, he could probably get her to do things she hadn't ever thought of doing before. Naturally, she was alarmed.

The two also ate breakfast in silence, and walked to the Gym in silence. Jarel took a seat on a bench that was conveniently placed next to the arena, but not close enough to talk to the challenger. The Gym Leader took her place, and the terribly uneasy Terra stepped to her place as challenger. The Gym Leader could tell that she wasn't nearly as confident as her predecessor, so she had much more confidence.

The flag that was dropped the day before was again dropped to signal the start of the next battle. Tyrogue was sent out first against Politoed. Terra's thoughts ran to the conversation the night before. In this scenario, she was supposed to have Tyrogue avoid eye contact with Politoed in the case that it should use swagger.

"Don't look directly at it! Just do as I say. I'll be your eyes." Terra called to her pokemon.

"Water gun!" called the Gym Leader.

"Jump to your left!" Terra said. And the young fighter jumped out of the way. "Use hi jump kick!" called Terra. And of course Tyrogue launched itself at the Politoed. The Gym leader was a bit too amazed at the fact that a mere child pokemon could perform such a move, so the attack struck perfectly. And boy did it do damage. The politoed could hardly stand at this point, but managed to jump into the water.

"Use whirlpool politoed." Called the red-headed trainer. Terra remembered the step next, but it was risky. Tyrogue was pulled into the water and was struggling to breathe, but Terra knew what to do next.

"Tackle, then use Rapid Spin!" she called. Tyrogue leapt out of the water using the power of the tackle and hit the water again in the eye of the whirlpool. It started spinning in the opposite direction of the water, and just as Jarel had said it would, the Whirlpool was cancelled out in a matter of moments. Using the extra rotational kinetic energy Tyrogue propelled itself into the air back onto a floating platform.

But all the spinning had done a bit of damage, Tyrogue had to sit down. The politoed took this to it's advantage and appeared out of the water "Hit it with swagger!" called the trainer in a last ditch effort to win.

"Use Mach Punch now!" and Tyrogue obeyed. It landed a moment before the swagger would normally take effect. That was it for Politoed.

Next up was Starmie again. Terra knew why, though. Starmie's type was water/psychic, which meant that Tyrogue's fighting moves would have little effect. But she decided to stay with Tyrogue until she got the hang of the Gym Leader's style. The flag dropped.

Tyrogue used mach punch,landing a direct hit to the gemstone, but otherwise not doing much damage. Before he could move, though, Starmie launched a powerful swift at point blank range. Tyrogue attempted another hi jump kick, but landed in the water. It was bombarded with attacks from the submarine Starmie. Both used rapid spin, then tackle, but it was obvious that Tyrogue was taking more damage. Finally, Tyrogue landed another hi jump kick, but Satrmie hit it with water gun at close range, throwing Tyrogue again into the water. Starmie hit it with Ice Beam, freezing it in place.

Now it was up to Psyduck alone. Terra knew that her psyduck looked like nothing special. He was always holding his head, in a perpetual headache. But she had known Psyduck for years and knew his strengths and weaknesses inside and out.

Starmie started with a powerful water pulse, but somehow missed. It tried bubblebeam, but again with no avail. It went it with a close range attack, but was surprised when it was disabled. Psyduck then used confusion on the already injured Starmie and continued with it for a few moments before Starmie freed itself. It was hit with a scratch that came from nowhere, and it was at this point that the red-headed Gym Leader made the realization that all of the attacks were aimed at the Starmie's gem. And it was working, for Starmie had slowed down and was attacking less effectively. It started to recover, but was blind sighted when the Psyduck launched an all-out attack. It threw a platform that was charged with Confusion at the gem.

The gem was cracked and the battle was over. Terra had won, and it was all thanks to Jarel, basically. She made her appreciation very apparent with a hug after the battle. In fact, she had effectively tackle-hugged him.

A few moments after the normal hug lapse, they were still touching and Terra was wondering as to the cause of this extended hug. She looked at the face of Jarel, and realized what had happened. He had effectively been frozen. His face was red and he couldn't manage to move out from under her. She now made the realization that he had never really touched a girl before. To him, this must have been incredibly awkward. But to her, it was a power she now had over him.

The day ended with the two badge recipients walking back to the Pokemon Center in complete silence. Each had their own power over the other. With this in equilibrium, they could now be friends.


	4. Chapter 4

Terribly sorry about the ridiculously long wait. I got into a few things. End of the school year and such. And I fell in love with the girl of my dreams, who happens to love me back. Anyways, it was a little wrong of me to put everyone on hold. I'll add the third character of the party soon, probably in the next chapter. Sorry again for the inconvenience. Deuces.

Terra woke the next day at the Pokemon center alone in her room. She had to think to remember that she had conquered the Cerulean Gym just the day before, and she had to remember that Jarel had essentially given her the winning strategies. So where has this handsome gentleman strategist? She thought for a bit more about what he might have said before they went to sleep.

She looked out the window and saw him training in the early morning. He and his pokemon were doing exercises, jumping over obstacles and practicing strikes and developing mental capacity. Terra found herself staring for a long time before realizing that she should be doing the same as a competent trainer.

She quickly dressed in her new clothes she had bought from the store with her winnings from the other day. Now her attire made sense. She wore shorts and a lighter top with sneakers rather than sandals and a dress. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail before looking over her overall attractiveness in the mirror. "This was fine," she said to herself.

She grabbed her pokemon and headed out to the patch of grass where Jarel was. By this time he was finished. He looked at her, but there was no twinkle in his eye like there was in her head when she thought about him. He turned his head as if looking to the right of them, but kept his eyes planted on Terra. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine, or actually rather exquisite." She responded, in an attempt to sound as urbane as him.

"That's good." He said, rather complacently. "I was wondering a few things…… mind if I ask you a few personal questions?"

"Shoot." She said, walking over to his bench and sitting on it while he stood, looking moderately uneasy.

"Okay, how did it end up that your Tyrogue knows so many great moves? I mean, with your dad being a fighting pokemon trainer, it can be expected that the offspring of which would essentially be bred for greatness, but yours seems ridiculously over the top to be a child."

"Well…… my dad…… is a little bit famous….. His pokemon have been bred for good stock and he hand selects the best of the best. He didn't like my psyduck at all, so he gave me one of his."

"I see, so he's a bit of a breeder."

"You could say that."

"So, what dojo does your father run? He sounds pretty awesome. I think I could learn a few things from him."

"I'd rather not talk about it." Terra said turning her face away from his for the first time since they started talking. Her father and Jarel in the same room together? No. They would kill each other.

"Sorry? Either way, we should get moving. We've got a few days walk to Vermilion City." Jarel said, scratching his unshaven face absent-mindedly. "That is, if you want to travel with me." It was at this point that Terra saw his eyes twinkle as they did in her head. She almost forgot how to talk at this moment as well.

"I… would like very much to travel with you…" But then she hesitated, because there were parts of her past that she wasn't sure if she wanted him to know. She started to blush as she saw his face begin to change expression. "Could we get some breakfast first?"

***

Later they left cerulean City. Jarel was hacking at the underbrush with a hand axe. He was clearing a path so that she wouldn't have to climb through anything too uncomfortable. Before she knew it they had stopped for lunch.

"So who is your dad? Seeing as how he's famous, I think I might know who he is if you told me his name." Jarel's sudden question caused Terra to choke on her carrot sticks.

"My last name is Avalon, remember? That should be a big enough clue," she said. Terra was hoping he would leave it alone, but this was Jarel. A boy that creative in battle strategy had to be quite the detective. After a moment, he spoke.

"Nope, nothing ringing any bells. Anyway… what do you want to do with your life?"

"Well, I want to be a pokemon breeder really. I love caring for pokemon and learning some things along the way, but what's with this interrogation?" Terra realized something.

"Nothing, I just want to know some things about you. I find you eerily interesting, but if you don't like it then I won't ask any more questions." Terra felt suddenly exposed and slightly indignant, but not so much that she felt the need to chastise Jarel for anything. Terra did feel the need to say something, though, but before her mouth opened, Jarel was standing over her. How was he so fast?

Jarel placed a finger on her lips, but not in the way that meant he wished to do something that wasn't kissing her. No, his eyes were darting around and his ears were listening for something. He grabbed her and pulled her into a standing position. He mouthed a few words to her. _Someone's watching us_.


	5. Chapter 5

Jarel removed his hand from Terra's lips. His eyes were darting around cautiously and quickly. He moved his face close to Terra's ear. She had problems keeping her stomach from doing somersaults as he whispered into her ear.

"There's supposed to be an underground tunnel a less than a mile away, and there should be someone inside. If that's the case, then we should make a run for it. But I don't think that the person watching us is going to just let us go." He pulled his head away from Terra and began packing up his supplies. He began to whistle as he shoveled everything into his pack. Terra new that this was to make the followers think he wasn't aware of them, but she noticed just how tense Jarel was at this point. After a moment of silent thought, she packed her stuff and made sure her pokeballs were easily reachable.

He looked at her with stern eyes. She noticed that he was looking in the same four directions every time his eyes made a brief darting motion. Terra had to think. It wasn't smart to look in the same place so many times if Jarel didn't know where they were. The way he spoke it sounded like he was sure that there was only one pursuer. Then Terra made the realization. He knew exactly where they were, and there were at least four of them. Jarel was becoming more and more confounding, despite the amount of time they were spending together.

Jarel's mouth moved silently again forming the words "one…. two… three." When Jarel reached the end of the countdown, he took off in a southward direction. Terra had never really liked running, but did her best to keep up. Out of the corner of her eye, Terra noticed a movement.

Something was following them, and it was doing its best to stay hidden. Then her eyes caught the movement of another something. She was becoming exasperated over the entire situation. The exhaustion was starting to catch up to her. Terra's breath became ragged and her legs were weakening. "I can't make it!" she called to Jarel, suddenly feeling like she had let him down. Her eyes sank.

"You sure?" he said, almost without feeling.

"Yeah," was all that she could struggle.

"Keep going, if you can. I'll buy you some time. I hate having to do this." And with that, he turned on his heel and launched into the woods, taking down the second figure that Terra had noticed. She turned her head less than a minute later and saw him emerge from the bush, towing a man in a black Team Rocket uniform. His hat was still on his head as he began to run after her. She saw a look of shock on Jarel's face.

She turned her face forward to see another man, outweighing her by at least seventy pounds. She had nothing left to try to run another way; she launched herself headlong into him. To her horror, it proved rather useless. The man threw her to the ground and pinned her down.

A woman emerged from the other side. She was the first pursuer that Terra had spotted. From her pinned point of view, she could only hear as another person stepped up from behind her. It was a man, and he stepped in front of her with the woman.

"Go Machoke!" yelled the man.

"Koffing!" called the woman as she released the pokemon.

Jarel was reaching back onto his belt. Kadabra was the first, and was obviously intended for Machoke. Charmeleon appeared and seemed determined to win. With a simple hand movement, Kadabra launched a Psywave and that greatly affected the Machoke. Koffing used a sludge attack as commanded, but Charmeleon was too fast. As far as Terra could tell, Jarel hadn't stopped running and was quickly closing the distance.

"Smokescreen!" called Jarel. The Fire pokemon quickly obliged, shooting out a thick cloud of smoke just in front of Jarel. The next few moments were terribly confusing. Terra suddenly felt a wrenching movement from above and realized that the man holding her down was no longer touching her. She heard a pokeball being released then a loud moan. She turned to look, but there was nothing to see except more thick smoke. "Fire spin!" was heard in Jarel's voice and Terra felt the heat around her. She heard a quick struggle and a few punches making connection. "Flamethrower!" was the next attack. Terra felt a heated amorphous shape land next to her and figured it was the Koffing. Terra stood up now. The Smokescreen had dissipated enough to see. She could now see that the Machoke and its owner had been subdued by Kadabra and that the koffing's trainer was laying face down and unconscious.

"Take down!" called the man who had been holding her down. Faster than she'd expected, a Tauros charged straight at Jarel who was standing close to her. He had no time. He threw her away from him. In this heroic act, it seemed that he would sacrifice himself. Terra's mind went into slow motion again. The Tauros seemed to be moving too fast to dodge, but Jarel, as always, had a plan. He stooped down. At the last possible instant, he threw his right palm upwards connecting with the beast's lower jaw. Jarel jumped away from the Tauros as Charmeleon launched a flamethrower at the Tauros as it landed on its back.

The Tauros remained conscious, and it decided to attack again without orders. But then something much unexpected happened. This next event was so unexpected that Terra could see from the look on Jarel's face that he hadn't thought to calculate it into his plan. An attack landed on the Tauros from somewhere unseen. It was a strong fire attack. And it hit the Tauros causing it to go wild. Charmeleon launched its own burst of flames. The Tauros was finished when the flames were combined with an attack from Kadabra.

Jarel bounded over the fainted Tauros and launched himself at its trainer. Jarel's teeth were barred and his eyes were feral. His fist connected well to the somewhat stupefied Team Rocket Member. The man tried to make a run for it, seeing that he was outclassed and outnumbered, but Jarel wasn't about to let that happen. With a sweeping motion of his leg, Jarel managed to trip his enemy. Terra was becoming afraid. Jarel didn't stop punching the man even when the man lost consciousness. Jarel's knuckles were covered in blood when he did stop. Terra couldn't be sure if it was more his blood or the blood of her defeated former captor. She couldn't see Jarel's eyes either. His hat was covering his face.

"You're welcome," said the unexpected visitor, who hadn't noticed Kadabra's fixed gaze on him. This unprovoked response sounded a bit obnoxious to Terra, but it seemed that Jarel hadn't taken any notice of this person.

The Growlithe whose attack had been the surprise and Charmeleon were returned to their pokeballs, and Jarel pulled out some rope from his backpack and began tying the Rockets to some trees. After completing this task, he sat down on a log and looked at Terra for the first time. "Are you okay?"

"I think so, my head hurts," she said, being truthful due to her fear of the being that had just inhabited Jarel's body. "It's fine, though." A lie. He pulled out his handy-dandy first-aid kit and extracted two red and white pills for the pain that he knew existed despite her lie and then began to tend to her minor injuries. He was completely ignoring their visitor.

"My name is William. William Brown, and I would appreciate a thank you," said the newcomer. _Kind of a jerk_, was all that Terra could think. Suddenly he sat down next to her on the log. "You're quite a looker. What's your name?" he said. Was he really coming on to her?

"Her name is Terra, mine is Jarel. Thank you for distracting the Tauros for me. And we'll be on our way now," said Jarel, being uncharacteristically curt and packing his first-aid supplies.

"Hold on a sec. Where are you two headed to? If you're heading to Vermillion, then I can show you the underground passage that'll cut your trip in half." There was a smile from the guy about the same age as them. This smile made Terra want to listen to him, but Jarel simply gave him the scary studying look that he had used on her shortly after they had met. This same look made this William Brown stop smiling altogether. Jarel was becoming agitated again.

"You were late. If you were already there, then you should have made it to the battle scene in a few minutes and helped me beat all four of them, but instead you waited until you would look the coolest in front of the damsel in distress. I really don't like you, so just show us where it is and I won't do to you what I did to them." Terra could see the anger that was causing William to flinch. Jarel's eyes softened. "Sorry." Jarel looked down for a minute "Seriously sorry. I was just mad about the attack and I took some of it out on you. Just turn down the flirt thing and take us to the path."

"Yeah, no problem," William said, smiling again and he turned to lead the way.

The rest of the journey to Vermillion City was rather quiet, Jarel didn't speak much and William had suddenly become shy around her. Why were boys so weird around her?


End file.
